In recent years there has been a substantial increase in the demand for packaging of individual portions of condiments, coffee cream, etc. As a result of this demand the technology related to packaging of these units has advanced. Previous methods of sealing a container by heat sealing techniques included the use of a sheet of heat sealable material being placed over the several containers, portions of which were heat sealed to underlying container rims. The containers would proceed to the next station where the sealed portions are di-cut from the sheet to form the container lids. This method relies on the feed sheet of material being aligned prior to the machine operating and the machine must be shut down if the sheet goes out of alignment because each sealing operation skews material further to one side. The initial misalignment may be quite small however this error is multiplied each time the conveyor is indexed. Another method of heat-sealing a lid to a container uses pre-cut lids interconnected by severable tabs as used in the present invention however the lid would be cut from the supply series of lids before the heat sealing operation. This second method minimizes the problem of aligning an interconnected lid with a conveyed container, however, control of the disconnected lid about to be sealed is minimal. This loss of control can cause operational problems due to lid mis-alignment as well as lid curling caused by moisture or radiant heat from heater blocks when the machine is momentarily shut down.